2020 - Volume 18

Journal of the South African Falconry Association

PAGE 1 ULTIMATE SPEARFISHING MAGAZINE > VOL 9 EDITOR’S LETTER

I cant believe that another year has once again past and for many of us its been a real problem to get out and fly our birds. Covid has certainly put a dampener on my season but on the bright side I have been inundated with articles. If you have submitted an article and its not in this addition it will certainly find its way into next years Mag. Hopefully for us Natalian’s the National Lockdown will be finished before the summer quail arrive. I’m looking forward to flying one of the smaller accipiters at this exciting and challenging quarry. May your falcons fly high and your dogs point straight!!

I feel that this picture of a Falconer and his hawk staring at the Moon epitomizers the trials and tribulations of being a falconer. It’s a humbling experience, when it goes right we are on top of the world and when it goes wrong well our mates are their to “help” us cope!!

A nice new feature is the QR code on some of our articles and on the SAFA website, scan it and you will be able to listen to the article. This should help those falconers that loose their birds at 50 ft.

Hope to see you all soon.

Stuart

CONTENTS

1 Bumblefoot, a new take on an old disease If only we could communicate with our birds, it 2 would make their and our lives a lot happier. EDITOR: Stuart Pringle (078 894 3698 or 7 Flying an imprint Peregrine [email protected]) LAYOUT & DESIGN: 8 First experiences with a Harris Hawk Beetle Inc (031 701 1812 or www.beetleinc.co.za)

10 Necessity is a mother COPYRIGHT: Mews Views is protected by copyright. Any form of 14 Small game Hawking reproduction, in whole or part, is prohibited. ADVERTISING: 16 4 Seasons with a Golden Eagle For information on advertising in the next issue, please email [email protected]

20 Falconry is a feeling CONTRIBUTIONS: Mews Views welcomes photographs and editorial 22 Flying a Black Spar in the Bush contributions. Mews Views retainers all reprint rights; contributors retain all other rights for resale and 24 A brief comparison of GPS transmitters for falconry republication. COVER IMAGE: 26 Throwing darts at a Quail By Stuart Pringle Ross Kramm’s Musket Black Sparrow Hawk chasing a Shelley’s Francolin 28 The true value of mentorship

30 Grouse hawking on the Scottish Moor

PAGE 1 BUMBLEFOOT, SCAN TO LISTEN A NEW TAKE ON AN OLD DISEASE TO ARTICLE

BY DR DORIANNE ELLIOTT, BIRD AND EXOTIC ANIMAL HOSPITAL, ONDERSTEPOORT

Bumblefoot, or Pododermatitis is a condition that hypersensitised to this bacteria which can cause skin Perch coverings that are used to prevent the development has plagued falconers for thousands of years. More inflammation (thus further compromising the blood flow of bumblefoot include astroturf, sisal rope wrappings and commonly seen in the longwings than in accipiters and to the plantar skin). On a bit of a tangent, the same rubber. These surfaces aid in spreading the bird’s weight broad wings, it is a progressive granulomatous disease of process is thought to be one of the reasons for feather evenly over the skin. Just as important as providing the feet. What begins as a small sore spot on the plantar destructive behaviour in parrots. Many other bacteria and a suitable perching surface is keeping that surface (underneath) aspect of the foot may easily progress to a even fungi have been implicated in bumblefoot, which is scrupulously clean. The less bacteria the feet come into crippling joint and bone infection. why your veterinarian may recommend a bacterial culture contact with, the better. Regular scrubbing with soap of the lesions when they begin to treat the case. followed by spraying with F10SC is recommended. The skin of the foot is very tough and resilient, consisting of thick epithelium covered by a layer of keratin. In Newer research has indicated a third reason for the raptors the plantar aspect of the foot also has multiple development of pododermatitis. When raptors, especially firm papillae which are thought to help disperse the skin falcons fly, their heart rate can increase to a massive pressure inherent to weight bearing. 900 beats per minute. This increases blood pressure and acts to drive more blood through the tiny blood There are two main initiating causes for the development vessels feeding the feet. Increased blood flow removes of bumblefoot. The skin is extremely effective at cellular waste products from the skin cells and allows preventing bacterial pathogens from entering the body for maximum oxygen delivery, thus keeping the skin which means that there must be a skin defect as healthy as possible. It seems as if this period of before infection can occur. The penetration maximal blood flow is important to the long term of a thorn or talon is enough to introduce health of the plantar skin. This is likely one bacteria under the skin. Even scrapes of the main reasons that wild birds of and abrasions can become portals of prey seldom develop bumblefoot. entry. Damage to the feet and talons is par for the course with hunting birds but There are potential options available for with early detection and appropriate treatment treating more advanced cases however the the development of bumblefoot may be prevented. prognosis worsens considerably from grade 3 to 5.

Avascular necrosis is the second initiating cause. Antibiotics and anti-inflammatories are needed to treat Although one cannot totally prevent the occurrence of severe bumblefoot but just as important is to remove any injuries, it is entirely possible through excellent husbandry pressure from the affected area. Foam foot pads or ball to prevent the development of this type of bumblefoot. bandages are used to keep the foot clean and to remove Avascular means “without blood supply”. Skin that has pressure from the affected skin. Special attention should inadequate blood supply will begin to die or necrose, thus also be paid to the unaffected foot as increased weight failing as a barrier to bacteria. The immune system has bearing often causes the development of bumblefoot many components and concurrent stress, malnutrition there too. or vitamin deficiencies will further weaken the immune Bumblefoot lesions are graded from 1 to 5, response and increase the chances of infection. 1 being the mildest. Surgical debridement of the lesions, where all infected material is cut away and antibiotic beads are placed in the Captive birds spend a much larger part of their day 1: redness, bruising, pale or locally callused skin surrounding tissue has been successful. These special standing still than do their wild cousins (this applies to 2: puncture wound without underlying swelling, or beads provide a high concentration of antibiotic where tethered as well as free lofted birds). Display birds that a scab or penetrating callus it is needed without affecting the body as a whole. The are not actively being flown are also prone to obesity. 3: generalised infection with swelling beads are removed when the infection is under control. These factors all lead towards increased pressure on the 4: infection has reached the deeper structures plantar skin of the foot, to the point where blood can no (tendons, joints, bone) In conclusion: bumblefoot is far better prevented than longer circulate properly. Human bed sores develop in a 5: irreparable damage with crippling deformities treated. Suitable, clean perches and daily foot checks as similar fashion. well as proper weight management will go a long way The falconer should examine their bird’s feet daily so that to prevent problems (or to catch them as soon as they The bacteria most commonly found in infected bumblefoot they can timeously address problems while they are still develop). Ensure that the diet you are feeding is balanced lesions (Staphylococcus aureus) is one that we humans in grade 1 or 2, both of which have a good prognosis. to prevent vitamin deficiencies and most importantly, fly, carry naturally on our bodies. It is an opportunist and can Often, changing perches, using suitable perch coverings fly, fly your birds. only take advantage when there is already a breach of and applying an antiseptic cream to the cleaned feet can host defences. Experts postulate that birds can become quickly reverse the problem. Happy hawking.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 1 BY ROSS KRAMM

SCAN TO LISTEN TO ARTICLE

In 2010 I was flying an African Tiercel. He had just come and let him know instantly when he was doing the right barely knows how to weigh a bird and very seldom does. out of the moult and spent 4 days on the creance. His thing or the wrong thing. As these things go or maybe However, he always flies really good birds. I’ve never first day of free flying was spent just letting him spread it’s just me but it would be a good few years till I started seen, nor heard of a bad one. Greg runs an awesome his wings and reinforcing that I was a good person to to really apply my mind and the collective of many other BOP centre up in the Drakensburg called Falcon Ridge. stay close to because food would be nearby. Day 2 saw free-thinking falconers in SA. We are blessed with many. He got a very badly imprinted Fish Eagle handed in to myself and a few “falconry friends” all standing on the There are a good few methods that we have all used with him and as she would never be able to be released same little hill together with a few birds to fly. I’d brought varying degrees of success. The kite, the quad, the plane he started training her for the show. The only problem my kite along with the intention of starting the season etc. all leave you with a very big jump for the falcon to was that she would have really liked to put her talons in with some fitness training. The plan: put the kite up to make in connecting the dots when these are no longer Greg’s face when she was coming back to the lure. To 400 ft and see if he could get there. Plans however don’t in the sky overhead. Good pigeon, bad pigeon or serving protect his good looks, he resorted to a simple plastic always take friends into account. As the Tiercel started out of position, also has its appeal. Most of you know garden rake to keep a respectable distance between the to mount the chorus of let the kite go higher became that lady luck doesn’t always smile a falconer’s way and eagle and said face. This little dance progressed and louder. And of course, like any good falconer the plan many a lesson of you are too low to catch this results in Greg and the eagle learnt that while the rake was up flew out the window. Long story short, he flew to well a success for the falcon and quite often the reward of the eagle would continue to fly and thermal. When the over 1000 ft to the kite and when he came down with getting to great pitch is met with failure. All these create rake came down the eagle would be in with a chance at the lure I didn’t see any panting. This planted a massive mixed messages and many things that are not in your Greg’s face or at worse get some food on the lure. Today seed in my head, how important is fitness for mounting, control. Some say just go out there and hunt the bird, this the Eagle has matured but the Rake rule can still be used here after all was a very unfit bird flying to what would too can end with you having a very effective hunting bird to “tell” The Fish Eagle to go higher. With Greg’s story in be by most people’s standards a good pitch. A fit bird will with mediocre pitch. By the way, if that is what you are my mind and a rough understanding of operant training always mount better than an unfit one, but an unfit bird looking for then stop reading this and get out there and and conditioning the Ball Method was born. that knows what it is supposed to do will out mount a fit go and hunt. There is nothing wrong at all with low pitch bird that is unsure. A fit bird that knows what to do will hunting, and usually this will fill your bag sooner than a The Ball Method. Ok not such a great name, hopefully be first prize. After this realisation it dawned on me that massive pitch. I am obsessed with massive pitch though, someone will coin something more appropriate. getting the bird motivated to fly up and away from the unfortunately seldom getting it. Some friends say it is Remember the kid’s games involving “you are getting food source was the bigger challenge and that fitness because of my other shortcomings warmer” “no colder now” as you walked around blind was a far second. For many of you this is not new news. folded trying to find some hidden object? Well this My challenge was how could I communicate with my bird Greg Mc Bay is one of those annoying individuals who is similar.

PAGE 2 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 As this is a recipe of sorts what’s going to happen when the balls touch. She should be leaning forward and giving you her full attention. This, all let me give you the ingredients. 3 birds learnt in about a week. Did I mention, put something in the launcher that she would really like.

1. 2 white Styrofoam or similar soccer sized balls 2. 1 metal rod about 1 meter long 3. A remote or manual bird launcher 4. A recently culled pigeon or well garnished lure 5. A Marshal or other accurate gps tracking system. 6. A willing falcon 7. A big dose of self-discipline to stick to the plan 8. A good friend and fellow falconry nut will make things a lot easier. 9. A oldish happy to be out in the bush pointer of your choosing or any dog that is happy on a leash. 10. A kite or quad to fly to, or a plane to chase for bad weather or days you don’t have time for a proper session so you can build fitness 11. Did I mention a good gps system?

BLOCK FALCON BIRD LAUNCHER WHITE BALLS I suspect and hope that over time this recipe and the method will evolve. It is by no means the only way to “talk” to your falcon but it worked for me and said friend Stuart Pringle. Before I get into the details I think I must give you an overview of our test subjects. 1 Gyr Step 2 heights in your mind before she flies. We started x Peregrine bred in 2011 by Tim Wagner. Ronin has Out into the field. No creance and start about 30 meters walking once she got to 300ft and then played the been my flying companion since being hard penned and from ball 1 and the launcher. Have ball 2 at your feet. warmer colder game till she got around 350. The next has been a fantastic striking bird. He did learn though Unhood your bird and let her fly. At this stage, you just day you start walking at 350 and play the game till 400. that he could kill most things from around 600ft and want to reinforce what happens when the balls touch. On paper this sound very straight forward but of course didn’t often go much higher than that. My second bird As she mounts you walk closer to the balls, we’re not there are all the other factors that make this sport so is Honey, a Twice intermewed passage African Peregrine worried about position here. We only want to teach one much fun. Other wild birds, weather, weight etc. etc. but that also gave a fairly good account of herself. She was lesson at a time. As she goes up the balls move closer try and stick with the plan. Soon your bird will start to inclined to occasionally sit though if you didn’t fly her together. When they touch she gets rewarded with about understand and believe that she is in control of the balls. quite fat. She was an 800 ft bird. The third bird. Stuart 50g of food, give her a rest for about 15 minutes and When I fly hard and mount, they move closer, when I Pringles Passage African Peregrine, Hera. She’s in her repeat once more followed by a full feed. The first few don’t they move apart. second year. Also, a successful bird doing around the days we were happy with 50ft, then 80ft then 200. After 800ft mark. about a week of this the bird really wants those balls to Step 3 touch and the big key is to get the bird to believe that she I’ll call this the refining stage. So, your bird has learnt Step 1 is making the balls move. After about a week of teaching what she needs to do to get the balls to move in a On the creance teach the falcon that when the 2 white “you are getting warmer” you start to teach “you are specific direction. Now what you want to do is teach balls touch food is thrown from the launcher. getting colder” She is flying strongly and mounting, you her that the balls will always stop slightly short, about 2 are moving towards ball 1. She sets her wings or loses meters until she is over head. This normally only takes a 1. Put a white ball (ball 1) on one end of your metal height you walk instantly away from ball 1. You do want few days. You should now have a bird that understands spike push the other end into the ground. Put your to be enforcing the positive behaviour more than the what she is supposed to do and you are able to tell her launcher about a meter away. Give your falcon negative so if you can have a thermal as an aid all the when she is not doing it properly. Now, so that the rest of enough line to reach the thrown food. better. By this stage, you want to be about 50 meters the falconry fraternity doesn’t think you are totally mad 2. Now put your second ball (ball 2) about 15 meters from ball 1 when you start so that you can keep giving running around with balls we need to change the rules away. Perpendicular to your falcon and ball 1. her the “warmer” signal as she mounts higher which slightly. Somewhere during stage 3 you add a dog to the Think about a large L shape on the ground, with of course takes longer. If you start too close to the ball equation. Tie your dog to the metal stake at ball 1 you your bird at the top and the 2 balls on bottom, left you will run out of space and she won’t be high enough. can now play around with the position of the launcher. (ball 1) and right (ball 2) Watch that telemetry and try and respond instantly to Anywhere within a 15 or so meter radius is good. In the 3. Unhood your bird which is on weight and keen for height changes. Someone watching from a distance will initial stages of the training the balls created 2 very clear some action. Walk over to ball 2 pick it up show it definately think you have lost your marbles, but anybody reference points and this made learning easier. Now we to your bird and walk over to ball 1. As ball 2 practicing Falconry never had any to start with anyway. are slowly going to replace ball 1 with pointer 1. Ball 2 touches ball 1, release the launcher. Let her eat can also soon be replaced by a white hat or she may about 30g and put her back. Once you think she is starting to connect the dots you simply lock onto your body. Either way you move towards 4. Keep repeating this until the falcon starts to anticipate can stand still as she mounts initially, set your target your dog or away from it. The transfer into actual hunting

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 3 should be pretty straight forward. I suspect that the birds would learn the same warmer, colder signal if it was applied to a dam with duck on it. Once they understand what it is you want of them, or how easy it is to control you, the sky might no longer be the limit.

Step 4 Go out and hunt your bird. Remember though that like any animal you have invested time and effort into will require continual repetition. So, don’t forget to “tell” your bird when she is doing it right and when she is doing it wrong. You are always training. It can be really difficult when you have driven 6 hours to your perfect hunting spot, your dogs go on point and your falcon doesn’t get up to where you know she should. It’s difficult not to just flush, because the longer you wait the better the chances that something can go wrong. Don’t change the rules just because you have driven a long way, have an audience or another pressing engagement. If you can get the foundation right who knows what great heights you may achieve.

Some general points worth remembering and ones I often forget

Positive and negative lessons: Try create a positive learning experience most of the time. Negative lessons are good but try restrict them. When you do have a negative it should be followed up the next day with a positive. Stuarts bird Hera was at about stage 2. She hadn’t quite connected the dots, it was not very cold nor where there any thermals to speak of. She flew around our heads for about 1.5 hours with Stuart using very bad language and me trying hard to hide my laughter. Sitting on a nearby pole every now and then. We just sat and waited her out. Eventually Stuart called her to the lure, gave a small feed. Later at home he fed her up to the desired cropped weight. The next day we flew later in the day when we knew there would be thermals. Within 6 minutes she was at 500ft and Stuart pushed the launcher Button. 2 more days of that and a little higher each time and the message sank in. we then went back to no thermals. She flew around aimlessly for about 10 minutes and then suddenly changed gears and started to mount when she got to about 500 ft she was served. I know this wasn’t higher than the previous days but she had put in a better effort and we were wanting to bring home the lesson. If weather doesn’t permit then fly her to the kite or plane for fitness but don’t have too many negatives.

Instant communication: I read somewhere that to train a dog it needs to be rewarded or “punished” within 3 seconds for it to relate the one activity with the other. I think that with falcons it needs to be even quicker. Watch that altimeter and wingbeat, I work on 10 ft increments, you could work on less. Every time she starts to mount I make an exaggerated step forward and continue walking while she mounts. If she stops mounting I stop walking. If she lowers pitch I instantly turn around and walk briskly in the opposite direction. The key here is communicating instantly and she will connect the dots much faster.

Patience, Patience: Remember that even throwing out a lure can be seen as reward. So, don’t be too quick to use this option. If your bird goes and lands don’t be too hasty to bring out the lure and call her to you. In her mind, she goes. “O Ok I understand now. Fly to that pole wait 3 minutes and I get some food.” Also, what usually follows is worse. The bird comes over and you hide the lure and look at her fuming. Now you have just

PAGE 4 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 taught her that the lure isn’t such a great thing. Always no difference. You put the falcon up on a good lifting watch her closely. You want her to catch the lure just be asking what it is that she is seeing through her eyes. day, remember you want a positive. The plane is lying in before she loses interest. I found this would usually the grass about 50m out next to your white ball. As she happen around the 8-minute mark for the hybrid and So now that we can talk to our birds and the rest of the starts mounting your start walking over. When she is at about 12 for the Africans. Only a small feed now as world has proof to have us committed what’s the next your target height you slowly pick up the plane, check reward. This bad plane that was very hard to catch from step in getting the mega pitches. For Stuart and I this her position and take off. She will instantly stoop the lure low height quickly teaches the lesson and value of height. was good plane bad plane. We are farm boys living in behind the plane. As she closes in to about 100m you After these bad planes we would usually fly the other the City with little access to daily hunting grounds so release the lure which is attached to the parachute. She birds and then give the bird another go. We found the I’m sorry to our forefathers that are now turning in their glides in, has a full crop and you go home happy. For Africans usually improved on the second flight but the graves but we “hunt” a remote-control plane. Now I know anyone thinking their bird won’t stoop a lure behind a hybrid would often want to go and sit. If he did I would I’m going to be stepping on some very big toes here of plane, I did this with 23 virgin falcons at our sky trials and circle the plane around him a few times and invariably men that have been doing this a lot longer than me. It they all stooped. When she is on weight again you repeat he wouldn’t be able to resist and would set of on another is not my intention to say what you have done or are the process. Each day raising the bar, set the height in 8-minute chase. What we found was that this ratchet doing for pre-hunting training is wrong but rather to offer your mind before she sets off and stick to it. The only upwards of increasing height targets soon gave us birds a different mindset. Do you remember the story of my exception being when she looks like she is going to go that knew exactly what they were supposed to do. We Tiercel that flew to the 1000 ft kite with no fitness? The even higher. Stuart and I had 500 ft gains on some days, could fly them heavier and heavier which actually turned same Tiercel was unsure and would hang around the usually after a “bad plane” exercise. out to be a mistake. When we started to show them duck 600 ft mark when there was nothing to fly up to. I liked they all had to be brought down in weight again to get the idea of good pigeon bad pigeon that Rob Roy uses, So bad plane. Yesterday she was at 1000ft, today I’m them keen on them. Our female Africans fly at around but in South Africa we don’t like using bagged pigeons. wanting 1200. She gets up and starts flattening out at 675g and our duck weigh in at around 900g. Thanks to So, in comes a RC plane pulling a lure, it is far more 800. I walk slowly over to the plane pick it up wait till marshals gps telemetry we have been able to get some reliable than a pigeon and keeps the greenies like my she is out of position and let the plane go. This time it is very accurate height and speed statistics that aren’t wife happy. No mixed messages get sent with the plane. at full throttle (check plane specs at bottom). She starts prejudiced by eyesight, positive thinking or exaggeration. You get to decide if it is catchable or not. The plane is not her stoop but miss judges the planes speed and tucks Here are some of those stats. Some of these flights were for the falcon to chase but for the falcon to stoop. Now in behind it, what follows is a succession of circles and in good thermic conditions and some where not. Flights whether you have used the ball method or not makes figure of eights. The longer the better, but remember to seldom lasted longer than 14 minutes with most being

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 5 around 10. The birds where always flying and working in the Cape on a dry fly I tied than I get from shooting a recording of Ronin at this height on a training day. Why their way upwards. They remembered that the bad plane 77kg longfin tuna with a spear gun off Cape Point. How 50 minutes, well he was refusing to come down to the is impatient. One flight in particular stands out for me big was the brown trout you might ask, 200g. That should lure, why was he being lured down from a 1800 ft pitch. that proves this point. On a particularly cold Natal winters explain a lot. So back to height, it’s for the thrill and Remember how I said good plane bad plane works so morning with no warm air for miles, honey took of the the challenge. The challenge to develop such a strong well, well it doesn’t if the lure line snags and you crash fist and 6 minutes later was at 1900 ft. she flew like she relationship with a winged predator that you can trust it on take-off. was chasing an invisible prey determined on escaping her to have the whole world 5000ft below her, she can to the heavens. see dozens of other food opportunities and her freedom POINT 2 is just a look over her shoulder. This is my rush, watching If you let them get up that high the duck will find another So, the stats her mount strongly away always leaves butterflies in my dam. They might, but they don’t know there is a falcon stomach and adrenaline pumping through my veins in up there so they get off the water cleanly and slowly The hybrid, Ronin was a 600ft bird. His last 10 kills this anticipation of what might be. The thrill, when she has head of away from you. We often seen ducks only season, which included 2 sandgrouse where from an mounted 2km away from me and has quickly climbed behaving under threat when the falcon was about 100m average height of 1800ft. Interestingly he had the slower to 3000ft, I step one step towards the sandgrouse field out, coming in fast and horizontally from the stoop. Many stoop speed of the 3 at 80 miles per hour. It may have and she instantly changes her flight pattern and heads never reacted at all with the hybrid that would strike been his tendency to strike everything, I’m not sure. This my way. Keeping her pitch as her own anticipation builds. through them. was by far his most impressive season yet. He came I try time my walk with her arrival overhead. She’s at second in our sky trials which was done with rc planes 2500ft now and I find her in the bins. Stuart flushes and POINT 3 instead of pigeons. for what feels like minutes she looks like she hasn’t seen If you let them get up that high you will spend your life them. I have to remind myself to breath, she’s just letting tracking. If you have done your ground work, and have My African, Honey was an 800ft bird that would them get up. Then suddenly something snaps, her wing rewarded well, this shouldn’t be the case. We tracked occasionally sit. She averaged out at closer to 3000ft beat quickens and she starts changing her angle. As she 4 times this year between the 3 birds. The gps system and had a good number in excess of 4000. She was gets faster and faster she put in intermittent wing beats totally takes the sting and the time out of this exercise simply spectacular, one stoop lasted 57 seconds. Check and then she takes that pose. A falcon in full stoop, intent and leaves you very comfortable to push the envelope out Honeys 57 second stoop on utube. That’s a long time and confident will for ever be branded onto my brain. again. It also lets you know that the bird doesn’t need to to hold your breath. And at sky trials… well she took This for me is the climax, a perfect opportunity, a perfect be tracked and that like Stuart’s birds that just wanted one look at the big crowd and took of down the valley flight and if the grouse is slightly off on their game, to go for a 4km flight past a river to come back at great and had to be fetched from a tree. Just when you think maybe there will be icing on the cake today. To then pick pitch. It took her 25 minutes and had we had normal you have arrived. her up for her meal on my glove with perfect manners. telemetry we would have been speeding down the gravel Remember the old cigarette advert with the two people after 15 minutes judging by the way she straight lined Stuarts African, Hera was also an 800ft bird. This was in a crumpled bed, and the caption reads “after action it away from us. We could not and would not have even Stuarts first peregrine, having only flown one longwing satisfaction” well that’s it. Once again if you are happy attempted to let the birds fly the way they did without the before this. He was a little more cautious than me and flying lower pitches, awesome, you will kill more than I marshal gps system. I am their biggest fan. a little less ambitious, often calling it I think before she do, and as long as it gives you that rush there cannot be had reached her max. That said, she came in just below anything wrong with it. A good falconry friend and fellow pitch obsessed Honey with an average around 2500ft and the fastest individual, also the man that has made my sandgrouse stooping bird of the 3 with regular speeds in excess of There has been a lot of debate about the merits and hunting dreams a reality, Anton Muller. Anton once gave 100 mph. As for sky trials, well he bribed the judges demerits of pitch. Some I would like to lay to rest. There me these great words of wisdom. “Never try encourage with food and alcohol and did some stupid dance that are 3 in particular I get quite often. others to fly your way or see your way as the only way. impressed the crowd and bloody well won it decidedly. Simply hope to inspire others to search for what truly POINT 1 excites them.” I hope this has provided some inspiration Why great pitch? As mentioned, I love height and here is What’s the point of having your bird at 4000ft you can’t and the building blocks for you to manipulate and bend why. Actually, before I get into that let me explain what even see it. Well if you have a gps system you can get to achieve your ideal flight. If its height, remember, aim type of fisherman I am. I am the crazy type of individual a very good idea where it is and then usually find it with for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the moon. that has gotten a bigger rush from catching a wild brown binoculars. You can definately see a 680g falcon with trout in gin clear water high up on a mountain stream the naked eye at 1873ft. I have a 50-minute iPad gps

PAGE 6 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 SCAN TO LISTEN TO ARTICLE Flyingan imprint Peregrine A Tribute to Mike Thompson

BY COBUS BEZUIDENHOUT

What an amazing journey it has been for me and such a privilege to fly this bird.

I got him from Mike Thompson after he passed away. Mike bred him and imprinted him too. At the time he had been at hack for two years coming and going as he pleased. He used to sleep on the porch and the day Mike passed he went into an open breeding chamber by himself. That alone was as if he knew what was to come.

I received him the following week and started working with him. Needless to say he was like a fairly tame bird but hooding was and still is a major issue. It took a week of trimming his weight and getting to know him before his first free flight. As I was nervous I didn’t let him go high or far and tossed a fresh pigeon which he killed easily.

At the time I was living on a 2000ha farm with lots of Rockpigeons. Within three weeks I trusted him to go very high and he managed to kill two Rockies in good style. However if he killed anything smaller he would carry it the closest tree. Very frustrating but in the years I’ve had him he has never slept out. As we progressed he made the farm his home and I could fly him any time of day and at almost any weight. Hooding did make me despondent many times but he made up with his flying. I never keep count of kills but he killed many pigeons from all kinds of flights. Some high up in a thermal and some by ambush. Many of our flights were at a waterhole with big Bluegums in a row. He used to use these to gain height especially in high winds. Then come over a spec or out of sight. I would flush and just look at the pigeons. Then this black flash just cut trough them and often times it was a strike but if not the chase was on. I’ve seen him out fly a Rocky on many occasions.

Over time the homing on the farm did get to be a problem as he would sometimes just go park somewhere and other times go wondering but he always returned. He never went self hunting and killed that I know of. Another fun thing we still do when I hunt that farm is to let him go and just sit back and relax enjoy him chasing wild Pigeons coming over from the feeding grounds. He managed to kill a few that way too but it was not easy for him. Most of these flights were from thermals and lasted an hour or so before he got bored and just come down.

He displays at me during breeding season but won’t let me near him. I think we have a love hate relationship and hooding got worse to a point I now have to force him sometimes. Not hooding him while transporting is not feasible either.

I had and still have so much fun with him and so many flights that it’s difficult to single out some. What I can say is that he is so versatile and catches anything from a Sparrow to a cock Swainsons.

One flight that some may remember (I know Bertus do) was at a meet. We had some pigeons and doves in a tree. He went up very quickly and came back high and a bit wide. There were about ten cars parked with everyone waiting in anticipation. I ran in and a few doves flew out. He checked but then a Rocky burst out and flew off. He just closed and came down as if there is no tomorrow. The Rocky panicked and flew straight for the cars. He took the Rocky mere yards from the spectators. Everyone just roared with praise.

Last year I had the privilege to fly Namaqua Grouse with Tim and we got one. Hopefully we will get more this year.

Thank you Mike for giving me this opportunity to fly him.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 7 First Experiences with a

SCAN TO LISTEN TO ARTICLE Harris Hawk BY JULIUS KOEN

During the late 90’s, a falconry policy was developed for exotic raptors in the Province for falconry purposes. I solution as long as I can get one (even a retired falconry the Northern Cape. At that stage I was employed by the am also not a supporter of the use of exotic species as bird) for a trial period on special permit and if we can Conservation Authority and I was also the only practicing I believe that we have sufficient raptor species available arrange that the permit will not be for abatement, but falconer in the Province. The policy was developed by in the country for the hunting of all available prey. Exotic for hunting so that I can just practice my falconry on myself and an ex-colleague, Mark Anderson, and it was raptors were, therefore, excluded as falconry birds in the property. This was agreed to and by courtesy of largely based on the Western Cape policy which was the province. This decision has, however, really served Hank Chalmers who donated a young female in early already approved in that Province. At the time, there us well in the subsequent years as this was the basis of 2018, I received my first Harris, a species which I had no were threats from foreign falconers (largely from the refusing many applications from foreigners. experience with. Fortunately Hank and Tim McPherson Middle East) wanting to come and hunt korhaans and was on standby for advice. bustards in the arid parts of the country with large During 2017 I was approached by the Kimberley Airport falcons. Numerous requests had already been received for assistance with the control of nuisance animals When Risha arrived, I settled her for a few days and then for the hunting of these species from individuals as well along the runways including guinea fowl, lapwings, started training. Things went smoothly and she soon fed as Professional Hunters, wanting to arrange such trips. hares, mongoose and ground squirrels. They thought on the fist. I then started working her on the creance, but We thought that it would be wise to exclude the use of that falconry would be a more eco-friendly solution to this is where I ran into my first problem. I use ex-racing their problems. As I did not have suitable species for pigeons as a staple diet for my raptors. Their fat content

such work at the time, I went into discussions is notoriously high, but I have learnt how to manage our

with them and the Nature Conservation indigenous species on this food source. Not so with the

Authority. I also had no interest Harris. On hardly anything to eat she still gained weight in doing abatement work and stayed unresponsive on the creance. I also knew on a full-time basis. I that you cannot leave them with an empty crop as they suggested the use would simply shut down their metabolism. The trick was of a Harris’s Hawk would be the

PAGE 8 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE small meals to keep fear would then only have to be occasionally reinforced project will go ahead in future. I now have a Harris that I her ticking over, but with the actual use of Risha. This abatement procedure can use for ordinary falconry purposes. to still lose weight. It has been effectively used in other cases, notably the took me quite a while to use of golf carts for the control of Egyptian geese on During the 2019 season I decided to concentrate on First get her weight down and golf courses in the Western Cape. On the first outing hunting hares with Risha. Although it is not easy in my for her to become instantly things were a bit new for her and she narrowly missed part of the world to find hares during daytime, I was responsive to food on the both a yellow mongoose and a ground squirrel. On her fortunate to take four during the day and two at night for glove. I trained her to the lure, second outing she took a ground squirrel and things the season. The night time hunting is only to keep her but do not use it regularly as I fly her were on track for regular control work. Right at that in training should we return to the Airport. Fortunately Experiences from the glove most of the time. time the project ran into a problem when someone from my permit makes provision for that. I have also tried the ACSA Head Office objected and stated that the use her on guinea fowl again last season, but with not many with a Fitness training progressed rapidly with her quickly of a raptor was too dangerous around aircraft and that results. I suspect that in order for her to take hares learning to follow-on and to regularly return to the the project should be terminated. We tried to explain efficiently, I fly her too high. This coming season I will fist for a titbit. This feeding of titbits was later greatly that a Harris is a very obedient bird and poses no threat drop her weight until she becomes responsive to guinea reduced and she is only occasionally rewarded when to aircraft. We even invited him to a field demonstration, fowl again. Hopefully she will then also still take the returning to the fist. On one of our early walks we an offer he has not accepted. In addition, we explained occasional hare and ground squirrel. bumped a yellow mongoose and with her immediate that we only fly when there are not aircraft close to Harris Hawk response it was her first kill. To me this was great as coming in or taking off. Not difficult because Kimberley Although I am still learning from Risha every day, I I would have to introduce her to the range of species is a very quiet airport. It is, therefore, since the end of can honestly state that I am pleasantly surprised by a that we would encounter at the Airport. A few days later 2018 that we are trying to get the project reinstated. Harris’s hawk. What a pleasure to fly her and I cherish we bumped a hare and that was her first of four for the my long walks with the dogs and her in the veld where season. Soon thereafter she took her first guinea fowl Where does that leave me with the exotic Harris in she is around me all the time. That is my me-time. and I thought she was ready for the Airport. my possession? I am indeed very fortunate that the Although I still love the spunk of a black sparrowhawk, Conservation Authority is very understanding of the I am sure the day will come that I will have to settle for The idea of hunting at the Airport was to use one of their situation as they have been part of it all along and they something a bit calmer. Hopefully that day will include red vehicles and to fly Risha out of the window. This have given me permission to keep the bird in case the a Harris’s hawk. would eventually lead to the prey species becoming wary of the vehicles even when Risha was not around. Their

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 9 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE Figure 1

Figure 2

PAGE 10 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 ECESSITY IS A MOTHER

BY JOHN STUART

lure fly, he hit the ground several times and once hit my face, knocking my shades off. I challenge anyone Red Neck Falcons at SAFA 2011, I have been hooked who is used to luring a lanner or Peregrine to have a on the little pocket rockets. However, they do have go at luring a Red Neck. They will snatch the lure on their idiosyncrasies. One of them is obvious – they the first stoop the first time you try, until you wise up. are small. The males fly at about 150g and the So, given that Red Necks stoops hard and foot females about 30% heavier. They have long fragile aggressively they need a lure that is not dangerous ne of the things I enjoy about falconry is that toes and they are given to carrying at the slightest to their feet. My lure is in the shape of a Pipit, with Owe are practising a centuries-old art with provocation, like their cousins the Merlins in the a banded tail, made from a strip of brown leather the incredible opportunity of new methods and northern hemisphere. They are also quite hand/glove with no padding or weights on the lure. See Figure technology at our fingertips. We are also a very shy, and this poses a challenge for falconry. I believe 1, the closest metal to the lure is at the ‘head’, small community and so, despite the length of time I now have a reliable method of overcoming these where a keyring holds a leather strap, which is in that falconry has been around, it could always be challenges but I will not use this article to explain it turn attached to some thick monofilament, which has possible to come up with a new and novel way of all, as I am still not certain I have it completely right. several lead shot weights crimped to it and covered doing things. Add to that the new species that we in heatshrink. This creates enough weight to be able are only beginning to learn about now and you have That can wait for another opportunity, but this article to lure in moderate winds. a situation where experimentation could well reap does cover some of the props I use to combat their positive rewards. One caveat though – I may not idiosyncrasies. Some of the other ideas presented have been the first to come up with any of these here would probably work for other micro hawks or The meat is cut into small squares and threaded techniques, it’s just that I would not have known even falconry birds in general. onto a loop of monofilament that passes from the about them if someone else was doing them on keyring through the middle of the body and back to the other side of the world. So, I’m not necessarily LURE IDEAS the keyring on the other side. I made a ‘needle’ out claiming any of these as my own, they’re just things of thin wire and used this to thread the meat onto the I’ve come up with that I’d like to share. My first idea is a lure that is suited to how the monofilament loop. Because the meat is towards the Red Neck flies the lure – incredible fast and very ‘head’, it rarely gets touched when the falcon hits Since seeing Anton Muller and Tim McPherson flying aggressively. When my Red Neck was learning to and binds to the lure, so it doesn’t go flying. On the

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 11 Figure 3

other hand, by using small pieces you ensure that lure, eat off lure on the ground, step to the glove The lure is hung from a braided teraline cord, with the falcon doesn’t get the tiring loose and carry it and get carried indoors (or to the car) to be offered a a bungee loop at the end that attaches to the drone. off. They soon realise that if they take a piece and fly bigger tiring on the perch, breaks the carrying/glove The small loop at the end of the bungee is for draping off with it they need to come back for the next piece. refusal mindset. You have to be faithful to this routine over the release servo on the drone. See next section. This helps prevent the carrying mindset. I believe that though, the falcon must know that when she steps to plenty of habituation to a routine of fly lure, catch your glove, a bigger reward is waiting. DRONE IDEAS

The drone I am referring to here is a smallish All you have to do is be ready to flip quadcopter. I built this from a kit and modified it for falconry, because you can also put a camera on the release as soon as the falcon this drone. It is a Gaui 500X, which has very nice electronics and drive and is piloted by an APM2.6 grabs the lure so that it doesn’t start flight controller. I am pretty sure most falconers will use DJI drones when they need a quadcopter. The an aerial tug ‘o war with the drone.” reason I would use a PixHawk or APM based drone would be that you have a lot less of ‘big brother’ controlling where you can fly and how high. That said, I would always fly safely and keep an eye out Still, on the topic of the lure, the next lure is useful for manned aircraft. Fortunately, most falconers do Figure 4 for drone work. The one pictured in Figure 2 has a their drone work in the same remote areas they do heavier body and a soft (plastic covered) wire for their hunting. attaching a tiring. This one also has a place at the rear for attaching a second transmitter, in case your Figure 3 shows the underside of this quadcopter, with Red Neck lands some distance from you, finishes the the servo attachment. The servo angles at about 20 squares on the lure and then flies back to you, leaving degrees, meaning you can slip the small bungee loop you to spend hours looking for the lure! I lost several over it and it will hold the lure cord perfectly. You lures that way before switching to this type. assign servo control to a channel on your radio and when you flip that switch, the lure is released for the No sharp edges protrude and the wire ends are tucked falcon. The picture shows the bungee in position over out of the way. The falcon will ‘grab’ this lure, rather the upper servo arm. than smashing into it at high speed so it doesn’t have to be as soft as the swung lure. When falconers first started using radio-controlled planes for training, they were manually flown. This

PAGE 12 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 was fine for skilled RC pilots, but lesser mortals were is not a safe perch for known to smash their planes into the ground and unattended use and it reduce them to a million pieces of foam. The solution is not being proposed to this is to use the autonomous features that all as one. Its purpose is GPS drones now possess. In other words, with some to get the falcon back self-training, you can learn to program your drone to under control and once fly an autonomous mission with the falcon chasing it has finished the tiring after it. Quadcopters are not that fast but they can it must be returned to turn very rapidly – perfect for teaching about quarry a proper perch. I have evasion tactics and getting exercise. All you have never had a problem with to do is be ready to flip the release as soon as the small size bow perches for falcon grabs the lure so that it doesn’t start an aerial Red Necks. tug ‘o war with the drone. SAFE OUTDOOR FIELD CONTROL WITH WEATHERING REMOVABLE T PERCH TOP I first started using this method when I had a Field control can be a challenge when the falcon Gabar Goshawk and I was very fortunate to have Figure 6 doesn’t like stepping off a kill to the glove. For done so. At the CFC Field Meet in 2013 there was a this reason, I designed a T perch made of piping Black Spar living in the trees around the farmhouse components, with a top that can be screwed into the we were staying in. She was even seen swooping at base. The idea is to firmly strap a tiring of meat my perched hawk, but it was safe in the set up I use. are a micro falconer you need to attract sparrows Figure 5 shows what I am talking about. A small and these little guys need their restaurant to be square plastic table, the kind you can get from Figure 5 exclusive in the sense of keeping the greedy pigeons Game, is the main shelter. The hawk sits in out. For that I use a small bowl-shaped frame as the centre under the table with the water shown in Figure 6. The frame is of the type you get bowl alongside. A section of bird net is at Gardening shops, for hanging from the veranda stretched over the table and pegged beams with pot plants or creepers growing in them. down tight with tent pegs. When If you remove the pot plant and turn them upside the falcon is removed at the end down, add a flattish pan and put this onto a frame a of the day, only the front two metre or so off the ground, you have a nice set up for pegs need to be removed to attracting the right size of seed eating birds. make a space, the rest of the set up can stay that way till When you are setting up a bird feeder like this, don’t the next morning. expect sparrows to enter the dome immediately. You need to scatter seeds on the ground to make the This set up has saved my bird place sociable. When the birds know they can get from the attention of a local Black food from your feed area you can start putting more Spar. One Sunday I looked out of the and more of the food allocation into the dome, until window and saw the Spar flying around they get the idea – that the dome protects their food the weathering falcon, with the falcon from the marauding pigeons. Before long you will bating like crazy. It keeps larger raptors out but have a devoted flock coming to your garden every day, is probably not cat-safe because a cat could force provided you reliably feed them every day, several itself under the net borders, it’s just not possible to times. I have had wild hawks and falcons hunting you know the falcon loves, whether it is a day-old peg it tightly enough to prevent that. So, I wouldn’t close to my garden thanks to this set up. I have had chick, a trimmed chicken neck or a warm plucked use this setup if I knew cats were in the area, I have both a kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon take birds from sparrow. The falcon is then offered the tiring on the another more secure protector in that case (in our close to my feeder, and Black Spars regularly pass T perch top and is spared being picked up directly case we have Britannies that would run any cat out over my garden looking for opportunities. As the on the glove. Once the falcon has stuck-footed the of the garden if one was foolish enough to intrude). saying goes “the lions are never far from the zebras”. tiring, you simply carry the falcon and T top back to These are just a few of my ideas for making certain the car/house and screw the base in. Then the falcon SPARROW-FRIENDLY aspects of falconry easier. I hope they are a help to can be left to work at the tiring in the back of the car BIRD FEEDER other falconers out there. I encourage other falconers or a nice quiet spot in the house. to submit their inventions and ideas to the Mews Anyone who has tried to set up a bird feeder knows Views. Figure 4 shows the arrangement in assembled that the bigger pigeons and doves usually arrive and form, with some newspaper for cleanliness. This eat everything up in a very short space of time. If you

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 13 BY ELTON ARNOT

It’s late September and while most falconer’s hunting seasons are coming to an end, the Natal boys are just getting started. The Spring rains turn Natal green, literally overnight, and the burnt Winter fields and hills begin to spring to life.

Quail has been my quarry of choice for many years now. That old falconry proverb rings true; Always match the hawk to the most abundant SCAN TO LISTEN and accessible quarry available. This is the only way to enjoy your falconry. TO ARTICLE

My hawk of choice for the past nine seasons has been a passage Peregrine named Pearl. She has taught me so much and with each passing season, she just gets better and better – like a fine wine, I always say.

PAGE 14 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 I retreat just a little, I face Pearl away from Dixie as I hill, and there in her foot is the prize, that familiar Small Game Hawking want to cast her off in the opposite direction. I strike plump body. She turns left and begins to descend. the hood, Pearl looks over her shoulder bobbing her Dixie is besides herself as we run down the side of head and looking straight at Dixie. A quick rouse and the ridge. There she is on a small rock pluming the For me falconry is about success, whatever your she’s off. She mounts quickly in the cool morning air. quail. I praise Dixie as we approach. Pearl begins her goals may be. It’s about getting out there and putting “Whoa, Dixie whoa” is the line I always say, just to usual conversation with us as we sit down next to her your bird through her paces, working hard to produce remind her to be patient. I’m not sure why I say it, on an adjacent rock. the desired outcome, in my case, quail in the bag. probably just my excitement at play. It’s that moment after a successful hunt that can’t I have long gotten over the fact that I am, for the Pearl is at about 200 ft and is rather wide, I know she really be described. It’s a sense of contentment that most part, a small game hawker. The relief of putting will come overhead when she is good and ready. With comes from accomplishment. I happy bird, happy dog aside the big dreams of hunting copious amounts of that she turns towards us, clipping her wings all the and a falconer who is going to be late for work. duck and partridge and focusing on what I do best, way. She’s at about a 45° angle, at about 250 ft up, has been a revelation for me in the later part of my when I move in to flush. Some of my best flights have Through the years, I have seen Pearl bind and cut quail falconry journey. While I do put a handful of partridge been when the falcon is a little wider rather than directly out of the sky, leaving them dead on impact, regardless in the bag every season, it’s quail that brings the overhead. I find that if there is less pressure on the quail of the method she uses, it’s all about the joy of watching hawking team the most joy! And the most numbers. when they flush, their first instinct is to fly hard and fast, a strong, fit falcon put through her paces. rather than to look for a place to put in. Besides, I enjoy Flying a long wing on quail has a limited window of the flights where the falcon is powering after its quarry My humble advice to those coming through the opportunity. From mid-October to mid-January, the with wings blurred, pretty much how you see Peregrines ranks, is that there is great sport to be had out there cover is at just the right height to offer first class flush hunting in the wild. on the abundant small game species we have in the hawking. Once you’re into late January, quail tend land. You may not have an abundance of partridge to bail into the nearest cover as they know they are With a burst of whirling wings, the pair of quail flush. and duck, but don’t let that put you off flying a long no match for the Peregrines speed. With some smart My eyes look to the heavens, to meet Pearl as she wing. Lannerets, Tiercels and even the falcons, can dog work quail can be re-flushed however the falcon hauls across the sky. She passes over us down the all produce some first-class flights on now knowing that height is a disadvantage causes valley, I lose sight as she disappears over the rise. small game... ‘style’ to go out the window, not that the falcon is There is a pause. Her throw up breaks concerned with all of that. the crest of the

The alarm clock rings, it’s 4am, time to get the team loaded into the faithful steed namely the Ford Bantam. By 4:30 we’re on the road heading to the field. This is the routine 5 days of the week during quail season. At 5am we’re ready to go. Dixie my English pointer is trembling with excitement, Pearl is paddling on the fist, she knows where we are and what’s about to go down. The beauty of a seasoned team is that everyone knows their part and it makes for an enjoyable falconry experience.

Pearl is an incredibly faithful hunting partner. She flies free of the scale when it comes to quail. She loves them! She flies robust and eats what she catches. On occasion she goes off and caches her kill and then returns to fly a second. These are some of the joys one gets to experience when building a relationship based on success with a bird. It doesn’t take long for Dixie to go on point out on the edge of the ridge. She is as solid as a rock. On close inspection, her face tells the story. Animals are amazing, they talk to us all the time, we often don’t listen, but they talking alright! I’ve seen that face before many times, eyes a little wider than usual, a hint of drool on the left side of her mouth, her eyes look slowly up to meet mine and then return to the short grass in front of her nose. I pause, there just in front of her, are a pair of perfectly camouflaged quail. ...so get out there and enjoy hunting your bird.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 15 Seasons

SCAN TO LISTEN with a TO ARTICLE A Golden Eagle 4 WORDS BY JAANNES KRUGER PAGE 16 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 was looking forward to seeing my old friend might, and shake the glove up and down to show me next challenge was fitness and muscle development. Griff again as I pulled up in front of the falcon her power, while all the time giving me that typical I decided on rope work. I tied a piece of thick rope to breeding centre on the outskirts of Dubai. He sideways eagle glare. Despite all this, basic training her leash and recalled her to the glove while slowly Ihad arrived from Wales the previous day to assist progressed reasonably well and in a short time she driving away from her on a quad bike. The speed and during breeding season. Getting out of the vehicle, was flying free, but by then I was sporting several distance increased as she became fitter and stronger. I automatically scanned the gigantic outdoor hacking scars from puncture wounds. I was becoming afraid The sessions usually ended by removing the rope pens, although I was certain they would be empty this of her and she knew it. In sheer desperation I turned completely and letting her do a few sprints to a long time of the year. But I was mistaken. Sitting at the to an online falconry forum for advice. As expected, dragged lure behind the quad. After a few months very top inside the nearest pen, was a huge lump of the first responders roasted me mercilessly without I could see a marked improvement in her stamina dark brown feathers. Little did I know that I had just understanding the circumstances, but eventually and the depth and power of her wing beats. I could caught my first glimpse of a creature that would take a few honourable gentlemen took pity on me. One feel the pectoral muscles under the shoulder joints me on the rollercoaster ride of my life in the following such person was Oom Trevor. Without his patient thicken and harden as the weeks passed. Although 4 years! The year was 2009. guidance I suspect I would’ve thrown in the towel. her temper still flared up now and then, the stage He convinced me that I had been flying her too high, was set for better things to come. She turned out to be a 2008 female Golden Eagle so after a bit of tweaking, I started to see a positive bred by Andrew Knowles-Brown in the UK. By dubious change in her attitude. Over the seasons to follow, During our second season together, I felt she was means she had found her way to the Middle East her muscle mass increased and she eventually ready to be entered. The only problem was quarry and soon proved to be too much for her new owner hunted at 4250g lean weight. availability – or rather lack thereof. To overcome to handle. Now she found herself unwanted and this obstacle, I borrowed a remote controlled bird occupying a hack pen that was destined to house a Armed with a wealth of new information, I started launcher, and obtained a steady supply of “volunteer” variety of captive bred eyass falcons in a while. Long shaking back when she shook the glove, sometimes guinea fowl. The first few attempts resulted in story short, some phone calls were made and the shaking her off, and I started casting her by her rat hunts, but by the close of the season she had next morning we caught her, jessed her up, and thus flying jesses when she was flying free. Pretty soon worked things out nicely. She would keep pace began my adventures with Kiran, the Golden Eagle. stickiness on the glove was a thing of the past. with the guineas and took them when they hit To curb aggression and footing during feeding, I the brakes just before putting in. Our first It didn’t take me very long to realise that I was followed the advice of Roy Lupton and bowl fed “hunting” season together was certainly completely out of my depth. Even though I had her while she was pinned under my left arm with a steep learning curve for both of us. Our worked with eagles before, within a few short weeks her ankles securely in my left hand. This treatment early misunderstandings forgotten, I started this Goldie saw through my inexperience and started quickly reaped results and she became a lot more to thoroughly enjoy flying this imposing, to exert her dominance. She would for example docile during feeding. I also built a swing perch in her strong-willed bird. grasp the glove with both feet, squeeze with all her mews to keep her mind stimulated and occupied. The

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 17 “I started to thoroughly enjoy flying this imposing, strong-willed bird.”

By now Kiran was in need of a proper moult. I By reclaiming she weighed in at a whopping 5500g remembered a conversation with Griff where he and she had completed a full moult in six months’ mentioned the benefits of honey in a moulting bird’s time. By that I mean she moulted every single feather diet, so I decided to give it a try. I bought a big tub on her body, whereas most large eagles complete a of freshly harvested Arabian wild bee honey from a full moult over 2 to 3 years. I still have a photograph Bedouin farmer. I started to bowl feed her a daily of her tail where she has 11 feathers in the blood. mixture on the glove and kept this up throughout A good foot massage with Dubbin and a cope, and summer. The initial aggression from the first season the end result was an exquisite, feather perfect bird never returned and she would now sit like a real lady with bright yellow feet and a powdery bloom to her on the glove and eat her bowl of food without trying plumage. to use her feet. It was imperative that the food was under her nose when the hood came off. It was time for the 2011 International Festival of Falconry in Al Ain, UAE. I was excited to introduce I share my recipe here, since the results were so Kiran to the world, and also to see two old friends dramatic and astonishing. She ate 6 days a week, 1 from the Cape, Adrian and Hank. There were of day fasting. This is what she was fed daily: course a number of birds available for national delegates to handle, including a few Golden Eagles. Kiran found her place in the large bird enclosure as the only privately owned eagle. On the day of the 1 large gutted quail Parade of Nations in the public arena, to my surprise I stood on the deck next to my vehicle as the ferry chopped up with bone I was approached by Herr Josef Hiebeler from tediously made its way to the island on its 40 and feather Austria. Through a translator I learned that he had minute daily journey. I looked through the window 1 raw egg yoke inspected the available eagles and he requested to at Kiran sitting quietly hooded inside and a surge carry Kiran during the parade. A bigger compliment 1 teaspoon of wild honey of excitement welled up in me. My company had no eagle austringer could ask for, and I readily transferred me to run a bird abatement contract 1 generous pinch of raptor agreed. However, for me the highlight of the festival on the island. From a previous visit to the island, I vitamin powder was meeting Mr Andrew Knowles-Brown himself. knew exactly what to expect - an eagle austringer’s Having not seen her since she left then UK 3 years Enough water to make paradise! One of our duties was to reduce a large before, he examined her from head to toe and the everything juicy free roaming peafowl population. To achieve this we sight of his fatherly pride and affection is something built a number of walk-in traps, but of course I had a that I will never forget. plan of my own…

PAGE 18 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 we continued our dassie hunting adventures with commotion where she had disappeared and I heard renewed vigour. I now didn’t feel much empathy with the distressed bleating of an Arabian gazelle… and them anymore! that is how Kiran started to provide me with a steady supply of gazelle biltong on the island! By this time our relationship was genuinely mutually Her first few gazelle kills were anything but graceful affectionate when there was no food involved. I affairs. She would latch onto the hind quarters with could touch her all over and pick her up without a both feet and hold on for dear life until I managed glove if I needed to. She would nibble at my arm hair to reach then scene and render assistance. After a and she always greeted me enthusiastically when I few such brawls, she eventually discovered the off- entered her mews in the morning. She also started switch. I vividly remember her taking a big ram no to allow me to move her formidable feet on a kill more than 30 metres in front of me. She reached with my bare hands. She would always wait for me to out with her massive left foot, locked onto the rump, From day one Kiran embraced her peafowl control assist with breaking in, and while she was enjoying and then propelled herself forward to secure a death duties with enthusiasm. After one or two planned the fresh blood, I would cut of a hind leg for trading grip behind the head with the right foot. Always when muggings to get her going on such large quarry, off. I always gorged her on every kill and gave her she took gazelle, I would sprint like crazy to dispatch she started taking them with gusto and we bagged the next day off. The pleasure you get from bonding the quarry quickly. I did this for obvious humane several in the first few weeks. By now our hunting with such a powerful bird defies description. I’m not reasons, but also to make sure Kiran didn’t get hurt. partnership was well established. One day I was saying she never had a bad mood, but they were few Unfortunately by this time I didn’t keep any weight flying her on spec in a bushy area. She would and far between, and I knew her well enough by then or hunting record anymore, but our bag estimate normally follow on and land on a bush near me, to always know what she was thinking. from memory for that season amounted to around 15 and occasionally came back to the glove. I never peafowl, 20 hyrax and 12 gazelle. offered her a reward if we were looking for quarry. On this particular day it was a bit breezy, and windy As we all know, everything in this life is temporary, conditions are what Golden Eagles are built for. She and so too was our unforgettable time on the island. was playing in the breeze above and ahead of me, Back in Dubai, work responsibilities prevented when she suddenly banked sharply and disappeared me from flying her every single day, but I still took behind the vegetation. Having seen this manoeuvre her out into the desert whenever I got the chance. before, I knew it was time for me to run! When I started noticing she was drinking water often, I arrived on the scene, huffing and puffing and something that was unusual for her. Soon after that swearing to quit smoking, she was sitting on the I noticed she became short of breath easily. A visit ground in an angry face off with a large peacock. to the vet confirmed my suspicions. The endoscopic My sudden appearance caused the peacock to make examination of the air sacks showed advanced a hasty retreat. I suspected she must’ve taken a stages of aspergillosis. The summer of 2013 Kiran beating, so I carefully examined her for injuries, but was put to sleep. found nothing wrong with her. After that day, if we encountered peafowl, she would pretend not to see She now rests permanently in the desert sands where them. She never took another. I fell in love with an eagle... Rest In Peace big girl.

Next to an old water reservoir was a huge stack of abandoned PVC irrigation pipes of all sizes. These pipes were the home of a sizable population of rock hyrax. Every morning at sunrise they crossed a 50 One crisp winter’s morning we were at our hyrax metre stretch of open ground to bask in the sun next grounds again, but as fortune would have it, she to a thicket of Salvadora bushes, and when startled, missed and all the hyrax reached cover. She was would scramble over the open ground back to the sitting in the cloud of dust where she had hit the safety of the pipes. It didn’t take long before Kiran ground inches behind her intended quarry. She and I had perfected our strategy. We would leave was clearly displeased and rightfully blamed the vehicle up the road and carefully approach me for her failure, because I held her back a from behind cover. We would then suddenly appear split-second when she wanted to slip. When around the edge of the thicket and slip the hood. It I made in to her to pick her up, she shot me was almost too easy and after a while I started to feel a quick resentful glance and took off. She pity for the hyraxes. One morning she caught a big started to slowly circle downwind ahead male that gave her a nasty bite on the foot. Although of me, when suddenly I saw her execute I treated the wounds as best I could, infection set the all too familiar banking manoeuvre. in and I was forced to give the big girl a rest while She folded up and dropped from view. she recovered and finished a course of antibiotics. There was an immediate and violent When she was back the wing three weeks later,

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 19 I’ve always had a passion for raptors, but my interest for falconry was sparked when I witnessed the Lanner falcons hunting sandgrouse around waterholes in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The female would sit in a Camelthorn tree 400m away and closely watched the organised chaos, one group leaving as soon as the other one arrived for a drink, this is when she launched her attack. Or so I thought, she was flying low and fast with stiff wingbeats when I heard another noise that sounded like a fighter jet, all the while the male was waiting on patiently above for the female to flush and distract the quarry so he can snatch one.

This was all I could think about the rest of the holiday and when we got home I ordered two books and read both of them cover to cover, I started reading about shortwings and how they ambush their quarry, catching possible prey in short bursts of extremely fast bursts. I went to Eagle encounters in Stellenbosch to watch a show BY MANUS MOOLMAN and talk to one of the falconers there (I couldn’t remember his name) but upon further research I found out you have to be 16 years old to be a part of a club and this was necessary if you wanted to become a falconer. Being 12 at the time my spirit was broken a little by the fact I had to wait four years before I can even think about becoming a falconer. Nevertheless I remained passionate about his hobby/ lifestyle and three years later the neighbour picked up a weak steppe buzzard that had a cataract in his left eye and brought it to me.

Living in the middle of the great Karoo 350km away from the nearest rehab centre I did some stalking on facebook and I only knew about one guy, Hank Chalmers, I found little on his profile but one of his friends Robert Van Veen had a beautiful Black Sparrowhawk on his profile picture and I decided to message him. To my surprise he was extremely willing to help me out over the phone to train this Buzzard and make him fit again. Something I really admired about him is that he was willing to help me and give me a chance, unlike some people he did not discourage me by immediately advising to take the bird to a rehab centre. Instead he took me through the manning and trust process step by step together with weight management and recommended the right equipment which I ordered immediately from East Coast Falconry. One thing he made sure of is that I understand that if something goes wrong it is NEVER the bird’s fault and always the falconer and that ‘geduld is een skone saak’.

I started training the bird following Rob’s advice and got him flying to the glove within 14 days but he could not see properly and struggled to fly to the glove further than 5m, I invited Rob over to come and fly his Finnish Goshawk on my farm. Long story short he helped me to become part of a club and fly a rehab male Rock kestrel. Man I had so much fun with that little fella, they fly their hearts out and I managed to hunt fairly successfully with him on small birds but he lacked the extra speed of a shortwing. I gathered valuable experience about weight management and how a raptor’s mind works. The ultimate goal of a falconer is to keep the x factor in the bird’s mind, this means that the bird thinks he has to catch something in order to survive because as soon as the bird figures out it is going to get fed later it won’t put in that extra effort and tenacity to catch the quarry. Anyways I got the opportunity to fly a rehab African Goshawk and to my surprise (them being more suited for small birds) I was less successful with her than with the kestrel, my problem was a lack of cover, this meant that I was never able to get a close flush to boost a young bird’s confidence and the afgos, unlike the kestrel did not take on a flush further than 50m. I tried all sorts of tactics including car hawking but I did not manage to reach my goal of a 100 kills a season.

PAGE 20 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 Despite being relatively tame and fat she still flew around her mews at dusk. I phoned Rob and he said I must make the mews darker and that worked perfectly fine with 80% shade net. After the moult she went back to Eagle Encounters to breed and I was given the opportunity to imprint a captive bred musket black spar for Rob. My number one goal was to not have him scream 24/7 and to keep his tail in one peace. Well I succeeded (mostly) he was a bit noisy despite hunting him every day and his one deck feather broke when he got into a fight with a lanner falcon. Living on a farm I was privileged enough to fly every single afternoon and sometimes even two times a day. I chose quality over quantity and avoided his favourite quarry, mousebirds, which to my liking were too easy to catch. Avoiding a few things which would make him lazy made for a bird that flew with a tenacious mindset and we were very successful as a team. Catching everything from a prinia and cisti to Guinea Fowl. While he was moulting at the end of the season Rob gave me a call and asked if I would be willing to fly a Red spar that had a minor wing injury and make her suitable for release. I agreed and that was to date the best decision I have ever made.

Coming from a black spar she was like a baby to handle, it’s like she was made for falconry, the only thing that is a bit of a challenge is her weight but with some expert advice we came along great she started at 200g and we ended at 210g hunting weight. With her having such a fast metabolism she flew best when I gave her 20g after the afternoon’s hunt and then 6g of rich meat the next morning to keep her metabolism going and not flying her on empty. It’s just like an athlete, in order to build muscle you need sufficient fast release energy otherwise your body breaks down it’s own muscles for energy, and that is where the birds get their speed from. We finished the season with 200+ kills the red spars are extremely easy to train and their speed are almost too fast for the human eye, some of her chases required UFC434 tracking of more than 700m after ringing flights after larks and starling. Her success rate was 92%. Referring back to the X factor these small shortwings know they have to fly or die and their mindset are just perfect for falconry.

SUCCESS TIPS FOR A YOUNG FALCONER

Everything is based on the same principal so ask advice, read books, but make your own choices because what works for one is not necessarily going to work for you, every bird is different you must experiment and build up experience. Don’t feel dismayed when you see someone else’s bird fly better than your one on videos ,people only post the best stuff and never the failures fly for the bird and your own pleasure, not for Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp . Use Mark Cook’s bow perch for your shortwing’s tail and use a good swivel. Pick your bird up when he caught small quarry, glove is the safest place to eat for the bird and eventually your bird will carry to the glove. Recognise the bird’s desires.

And Last but not least I would like to thank Robert Van Veen and Hank Chalmers for being there for me when I needed them even after more than 20 000 Whatsapp messages and for doing such a great job for the birds at Eagle Encounters. The buzzard with one eye is flying actively in the shows and hopefully the musket Black Spar will donate semen and help you guys with the AI journey.

Get out there and fly your bird, in the end you must still be able to enjoy it. Do not over-do it.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 21 BY ERROL BLIGNAUT

With a start of a new season and a sighting of well over 50 guineafowl, luckily the majority of them was at an adequate size for my musket BS. I for one was definitely excited to see what he can do but we had a small issue here, a large pride of lion had killed a waterbuck the previous night and only less than 150 meters away from where the guineafowl were at rest. So I had to be very careful!

Pointers and the bloodhound had lined up and I had my girlfriend and dad with, we decided to go for it… Nerves were high and adrenaline pumping, not only because of the hunt but maybe being hunted myself for that matter. That’s when I heard the young guineafowl calling in the grass and we went for it! Rushing straight into the direction of the lion kill keeping one eye on the moving grass and the other on the lookout for possible lions up ahead, when suddenly three guineafowl flushed and just like that it was on! Hawk slipped committed and pumping like a true monster, guinea’s pulled off and within seconds the sound of flapping wings in the distance may have confirmed a kill, but we weren’t done yet! Running through the bush to help him with his first possible guineafowl not to forget lions in the area, obviously not something that would have been recommended but only Falconers will know that we tend to do a lot of dumb stuff when it comes to putting our hawks first. When I got to him he had already got everything under control and that was our first guinea in the bag, Phew!

The following day we noticed lion paw prints by the road we where flying at, sent chills down my spine realizing how small we actually are compared to a full grown lion, A “normal” day in the bush for us...

PAGE 22 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 We all know the distance a BS can cover during a chase and hunting for us can become very dangerous when he slips especially when you have the Big 5, numerous large raptors such hawk eagles, martial eagles and not to mention venomous snakes and the odd poacher you face! Recently I even had a badger chasing my poor GSP’s around.

Each day out hawking has its own little twists with elephants blocking my path or the smell of a fresh carcass nearby from a lion kill, the only thing that is probably safe to say here is there is never a dull moment for us!

2019 was an extremely bad year for the quarry in my area with only two-crested francolin we managed to flush and one sighting of a small guineafowl flock in over 7 months in the field. This becomes very frustrating when flying a hawk that requires attention, definitely a follow up story for another day…

Nerves were high and adrenaline pumping, not only because of the hunt but maybe being hunted myself for that matter.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 23 BY ALAN HARVEY

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This article was inspired by the recent loss of my hacked female Peregrines I have been flying this season. radio receiver handy. I also found that changing the passage Peregrine in part due to the failure of the GPS They have been flown very loosely and I will often leave status of the transmitter via the apple device really system. I have been using the Marshallr adio system them out for the day if they do not fly to expectations. chews its battery. I feel the Marshall system on the latest since it was released in 2015. I have had no issues I would then track them down in the evening and pick app update where you can put the transmitter to sleep, and it has been a huge leap forward in the training and them up but occasionally leave them out overnight. So change mode etc work fine in normal day to day flying day to day flying of my birds. That said I had not had a basically emulating a typical lost hawk scenario. but can lead to catastrophic results as in my case. I kept bird go on a long range cross country tracking session putting the transmitter to sleep throughout the day and until this bird was lost. I had tested the system in every Firstly, comparing the apps. I find the Marshall app night of my tracking session and within 12 hours the practical way possible before the loss but when the to be much less complicated and easier to use. The transmitter battery was dead. It would be much better chips were down and a real life white knuckle tracking Microsensory app has in my view too much irrelevant if the settings on the transmitter automatically change session was on, the faults of the system became very information. The Marshalls apps biggest weakness is modes as the hours and days pass. If I had set my evident and unfortunately did not end well. that it only works with Apple devices and not on Android. transmitter to go into reserve mode automatically at 90 The app also rapidly drains the device when it is running percent battery life and GPS updates at 2 min intervals After the above mishap I bought myself the Microsensory so keeping the phone and the pocketlink charged on extended mode all would have been well and I system to test and compare these two systems. while tracking on foot running across kilometers of the would have had 3 to 4 days to retrieve the bird. The Freestate flats in pursuit of a rapidly disappearing falcon Microsensory system can be reset via your cellphone I have now been alternating daily with these two it becomes a juggling act. If your phone or Ipad goes or the phone network but gives you a huge advantage manufacturers GPS units on a daily basis on the two dead you have a problem tracking unless you have a in that you can get a location on your bird anywhere in

PAGE 24 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 the world basically. And it really works. With the Marshall system you have to be in GPS range/contact to change settings on the transmitter wheras on the Microsensory this happens via the cellphone network and the transmitter will pick up the changes as soon as it gets in range of a network. This is a very real advantage.

With the Marshall system once you have lost GPS signal, which by the way is very line of sight and in practical hunting circumstances is only a few kilometers and a lot less when the bird is on the ground. Incidentally both the systems are very similar in this regard. The huge and very important difference is that when the Marshall system loses signal you are back to old school radio telemetry and you have to dig out your radio receiver.

With the Microsensory system you can get a fix via the phone network or just track the radio signal with the small handset without having to depend on your phone. The other very important advantage of the Microsensory transmitter is that it has a small solar panel on it and it recharges itself, potentially giving unlimited battery life. The use of the phone or Ipad with this system is optional for use in recording a flight or getting a visual location on Google Earth but is not the principal method of tracking down your bird.

My advice to the two respective companies producing these products would be the following.

Marshall should put a touch screen on the pocketlink and build a radio tracking receiver into it so you are not dependent on your phone or Ipad or have to carry an extra bulky radio receiver.

Their transmitter is excellent but the battery management system run via the app should run automatically. A falconer running through the veld in a balls to the wall tracking session is not in a good state of mind and cannot be trusted to make rational decisions on managing the transmitter remotely from a rapidly dying Phone! If the falconer presets the transmitter as laid out above and only briefly goes into eco mode to get a location and then resets the reserve mode to 90 percent all will be well.

Microsensory has to work on the quality of the transmitter and the handset. They are both plasticky and not robust. The fact that the transmitter is not waterproof is a huge problem. The size and the shape of the transmitter are not very aesthetic. If the handset and the transmitter were made of anything other than plastic it would be good. I must add that the after sales service from Microsensory is exceptional.

These are just a few of my deductions after half a season of this comparison.

I plan to finish this season using both GPS units and will make a decision at the end as to which unit to continue with.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 25 By Cameron Coley

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WING THR DARTS AT

BY CAMERON COLEY Quail

The only issue with throwing darts at a dartboard is quail with a Sparrowhawk by throwing them. After asking a difficult quarry when you don’t know when and where that more than often we don’t throw them in the right around only to find that it was not being done currently they are. Throwing, if done correctly gives the bird a direction, and they don’t have a mind of their own. So, by anybody. I knew I would have to research a bit deeper quick boost so that they can reach top speed in a shorter replace that dart with a Female Imprint Red Spar and before I jumped in the deep end and gave it a try. So, I amount of time. It also allows you to pinpoint quarry, if you’ve got a killer combo. watched a few more videos before I believed that was you’re targeting a specific quarry you can choose when ready enough to give it a go. My reasoning for wanting to to throw. Technique is very important when throwing in While sifting through the endless falconry videos on try Throwing her was because unfortunately I do not have order not to cause injury or feather damage to the bird. YouTube I came across a Turkish video of how they hunt a dog yet to assist me in hunting. Thus, quail can be quite

PAGE 26 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 While the bird is perched on the glove, begin to stroke their front. Slowly move your arm between the bird and your body and then put your hand over the birds back and grab it. When throwing, the bird must be held with its weight supported by your hand, and its feet back directly under the tail. Not in-between your fingers.

By Cameron Coley I learnt a lot of things along the way, the biggest thing is that you need to wear a throwing glove so that the oil on your hands does not damage the feathers making them permeable to water. This damage is permanent until the next moult. Birds become frustrated when held so it is very important to remember that killing is mandatory. If throwing becomes unsuccessful the birds will begin to resent the hand and being held so make sure that whenever you throw the bird you are almost guaranteed a kill.

I have had much success with throwing, including an accidental Red-Billed Teal that got up between her and the snipe she was chasing, instinct took over and she managed to hold on without being injured. Many, many quail and other birds along the way. If anybody would like to try WING this style of hunting I would encourage you THR to get hold of me, I would love to tell you everything else I learnt along the way and DARTS AT prevent you from making any mistakes that I did. Quail

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 27 BY ANDRÉ CILLIERS

We are currently going through lockdown, and as I am writing this article, I have a frustrated falcon and pointer that really needs to get out. I took my falcon out of the moult in mid-

SCAN TO LISTEN March this year to get her fit for early season rockies and the TO ARTICLE CFC sandgrouse meet that happens in May. Her last flight to the drone was a cooker flight powering up to 220m and left me with starry eyes for the season ahead. Then COVID19 came and locked down any early season plans. We should have been flying rocky setups by now… Now I am left replaying the memories from last season to keep me sane.

I have been out of the sport for close to five years due to a few reasons, in 2012 the fire to fly died a bit as at that time work commitments and the feeling that I am not doing my birds justice really put out the flame. I also had to get some direction in my life. I started working in training and development, and due to the nature of the work I was at home for one or two nights a month, so flying was out of the question. In 2018 things settled a bit, and I worked on projects closer to home, so my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I decided to get a pointer. She wanted something with a beard, I wanted something that will not mind icy water and will flush ducks (bad memories of early morning swimming as an appy), so we settled on a GWP from a breeder in Heidelberg. Newton doesn’t mind cold water, in fact, he loves it, and he has a beard. Happy wife, happy life.

This of course led to me having to clear ground to run the dog, so after 5 years of minimal contact with the falconry community, I contacted Zayin, as I knew he was into dogs as well. I joined him, Francois and Graham to fly their passage peregrine tiercels one morning, and the flame was back. I needed a hawk.

Having not flown any bird in 5 years, and not being happy with my style of falconry for at least 7 years, I knew a change was in order. I could not do this alone, and I could not do this by the book. I needed to make a plan. I received my B-grading in 2008, and as I was 19, young and dumb at the time, I thought I had this falconry thing sorted. Thinking back now, as I sit and write this, I am embarrassed. I did not have it sorted. So, remembering the advice of the California Hawking Club Apprenticeship Guide that Dirk gave me when I was doing my apprenticeship, I parked my ego at the door.

PAGE 28 MEWS VIEWS > 2020 I started off by going out and flying with Nick, Alan, Zayin, solidly pointing yet at that stage), readied the falcon, and planning on flying her for longer, the weather and my Francois and Graham as much as possible. I watched how as I waited for her to leave the fist a yellow-billed duck working hours did not play along, and a week later she they worked passage peregrines, I watched how they got came in to the marsh. She exploded of the fist and nearly started moulting. Her average flying weight for the their intermewed birds fit, I listened and asked questions. caught it as it came in. Although my heart was racing, I season was around 670gr, and we ended with two duck To say it was enlightening is an understatement. This was left her to get height before going in to fly the francolin. and one cormorant kill. Not great numbers, but I got her the style of falconry that I wanted. Falcons in excellent She went up to around 100m and the dog and I worked in turned on to duck, and that was the plan. condition, strong mounting hawks that are at the pinnacle towards the franc. We were about 10m from the clump of their performance. I needed to emulate this. of grass when the yellow bill exploded to our left. She A few things this first season back has taught me: folded and bound to it about twenty metres from me, but Surround yourself with falconers who fly the At this stage I had a new job, an understanding employer unfortunately the duck shrugged her off on the ground 1 way you would like to fly that would let me clock off early to go fly, and minimal and got away. She tail-chased but it made cover about travelling, so the time was right for a bird. But where 800m away. When she came back, I fed her up. Listen to them and take their advice on board. to get one? Enter Kevan, at the CFC meet we were Don’t take what they say as a personal attack, discussing my flying plans when he asked me if I don’t We continued on this trend, coming close, and building 2 they want to better your falconry (if you want his pet peregrine, a 4 year old rehab eyass that flies her confidence until one sunny Saturday morning. It surround yourself with the right people) and has caught a franc or two, but is dog tame and more was lovely thermal weather, so I decided to fly a bit later. of a pet than a serious falconry bird. As he was battling We had a dam with two shovellers on, and I had an Do your homework, make sure that you have for time due to work commitments last year, he felt he apprentice and the dog with me to do the running. I also the time and quarry for the bird you want to 3 was not doing her justice, and wanted a new home for had some guests with me (and this is usually when things fly (this should go without saying, unfortunately her. I was elated and picked her up the next weekend. go wrong). The whole week was raining, and we didn’t it doesn’t) have a lot of opportunity to fly or to weather, and based on I worked out a plan for her, I would spend a month just previous experience, this would end in a tracking session. When I started Dirk told me that experienced doing fitness, plane her when I could go out with Francois, However, the setup was perfect, so I had to fly. She went people make falconry look easy. I managed towards the end of the season to make it look otherwise fly her to the kite (I am saving for my own off the fist, and immediately landed on a fencepost to easy, with the bird doing as expected. But drone). Once she starts doing a decent job of mounting, enjoy the sun. I kept my cool in front of the guests and 4 this was due to sitting down with experienced I will start introducing her to quarry, and show her duck. poured coffee for everyone. As I was pouring the last falconers, setting up a plan for the bird, and Initially I pushed her weight up, to try and find her ceiling, coffee she went off and started thermalling. I let her get sticking to the plan. and that is where the first problems came in. she would up to around 200m, and nice and wide when I went in fly the kite hard at any weight, but if I fly her on the plane for the flush. She came in and smacked the duck into I started this season flying my bird to the drone at 740gr. above 670gr, she would just fly below the plane (flap, flap, the wall, it hit the ground, and rolled back into the water. She hunted it hard, flying her wings off from day one. In glide) tracking it and waiting for the bait to drop. We still As it hit the water the dog flushed it and I just saw the temperament she is a completely different bird from last got her up and got her fit, and by dropping her weight falcon and duck disappearing over the dam wall, with the year, it is like someone switched my falcon with another to 650, we cut out most of those problems. This is also appy hot on their heels. A few seconds later he came one, and I know that this year will make her more efficient where I started seeing the value in having experienced back over with a HUGE smile on his face. We had caught and deadly. falconers around, they saw things I didn’t notice, in flight our first duck! style, behaviour and mistakes I made. This really helped me address possible rookie mistakes and bad habits Two weeks and unfortunately not a lot of flights later (due before they caused problems. to horrible weather) we were flying the same dam with a lone shoveller on it. This time there was no thermals, Her first introduction to duck with me did not go well. It it was cold and windy. She went up, and as she was was a perfect setup, two red-billed teal on a small dam mounting the duck slipped away to a dam about with no cover around. I put the falcon up and she went off 400m away. I was running towards that dam and mounted to around 120m, not the 300m I would like, when she went into a stoop in a totally but I needed her to start doing duck before working on different direction, and burst over the dam pitch. As she came over the dam, I sent the dog in, and wall on the tail of two yellow-bills the we flushed the duck. She tracked them, and then broke next moment, they made the water off and came to sit next to me on the dam wall waiting for and as she remounted the dog her lure. I picked her up, hooded and went home. She flushed them. She stooped, hit had lovely cold pigeon for dinner that night. At this stage one into the tall grass, with the I was doing 2 days of hunting, and 4 days of pitch and dog right underneath, it flushed, fitness work with her. and she came in underneath it and scooped it up. I could not A few days later I was out running the dog in one of my stop smiling. marshes, when I saw a lone female cape francolin run into a clump of tall grass. The setup looked good so I This was at the end of called the dog in, before he flushed the cape (he was not September. Although I was

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 29 BY KEVAN HEARSHAW

In August last year, 2019, I was very fortunate to be out of the window and enjoy the view. As the train was stone cottage on a sheep farm, which if you were to invited by David Jones to join him and his friend Ken slowing down to stop at the station in a little town called imagine an idyllic cottage close to a grouse moor in the Mc Dougal on their grouse moor in the highlands Ladybank, a covey of partridge flushed from next to the Highlands of Scotland that would be it. of Scotland. I was already in the UK, in Bristol, for a tracks and landed close by in a field. There were at least wedding so it was a matter of flying up to Edinburgh a dozen birds and about eight of them were only about The moor itself was reached by a short few kilometres and taking a train to Dunkeld in Perthshire. Once the half grown. I couldn’t identify them, whether they were down a tar road and then up a rudimentary track which air travel was out of the way, getting up in the early greys or red legs, but they were definitely breeding so I followed the valley and up and over into the next, hours of the morning and taking red-eye flight are not took that as a good omen for things to come. if that was your intention. The weather down at the my idea of fun, the rest of the journey by train was very cottage was about as benign as it gets in late summer enjoyable. People in Scotland are generally friendly and Dave and Ken picked me up at Dunkeld Station around in Scotland but up on the moor it was cold and windy it’s all very organised but unrushed, and the further you midday and we went back to the cottage and started to and often raining as well. It was like that every day of get from the city the more relaxed you feel. There were get sorted out for flying in the afternoon. They had five the week that I was there, except for one day which plenty of comfortable seats available and the trains have birds to fly in total, Dave’s gyr falcon, gyrkin, and hybrid, was raining down below as well. Driving up to the moor free Wi-Fi, so all I had to do was sit back and stare and Ken’s two peregrines. The accommodation was a we immediately started to encounter large numbers

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of game birds, pheasant and red leg partridge which plenty of grouse around. We saw lots from the vehicles. grey wing and Cape spurfowl, but heavy and compact. It were being released by someone for a shoot. This was They weren’t as easy to find with the dogs but not long feels like a robust creature in hand and I was to witness incurring Dave’s wrath because this was happening in after arriving on the moor we had our first flight. Dave its powers of flight numerous times over the six days an area where he had acquired the hunting rights, and put the hybrid up over a point and flushed a grouse that I was there. he didn’t want his dogs pointing a pheasant when there which went straight down hill and turned down to follow was grouse to be hunted. Back at home we wouldn’t the valley with the hybrid in hot pursuit. We thought he’d When we returned to the moor Ken casually informed us mind if some fool was releasing hundreds of birds for us been beaten but when he didn’t return we got in the that we’d just missed his peregrine stooping a grouse to kill, because for us everything’s either free or it costs vehicle to go and look for him. We tracked him down from a pitch of several hundred metres. She was a a bottle of brandy every year. Your perspective changes next to a stone wall enclosing a patch of forest. He’d speck in the sky. I’ll take your word for it Ken even if when you have to pay for the rights to hunt and you have made a kill more than two kilometres away. Once Dave Dave doesn’t. a limited number of weeks a year to do it. A flush and had traded him off the grouse he handed it to me for a flight at a pheasant or red leg partridge is a flight that better look. The first obvious thing about a red grouse That was the exception. The conditions didn’t allow for could have been at a grouse. So the areas further down is the feathers all the way down to the ends of the toes. massively high flying falcons like I’ve seen in the Free the moor had to be avoided. That being said there were It’s not as big as I expected, sort of mid-way between a State. There are no thermals to ride into the heavens.

MEWS VIEWS > 2020 PAGE 31 It’s mountainous, and windy and rainy. Conditions that I would never fly in at home were just the norm in the Highlands. Although Dave did tell me that it was the worst week of weather that he’d had since he’d started coming up to Scotland decades ago. The strange thing about it was that down at the cottage it would be a lovely, mild, late summer’s day. On top of the mountain we’d be struggling through intermittent driving rain, or blustery drizzle. Well, I was struggling. Dave and Ken didn’t appear to notice. Many of you will know David Jones from the SAFA Meets which he has attended many times. I first met him in 1997 in what was my first full year in falconry. I’d joined the Cape Falconry Club in 1996, and the next year I drove up to Masselspoort outside of Bloemfontein with my old friend Tony Pitzer. Dave was there as a guest of Adrian Lombard. Since then I’ve enjoyed his stories about falconry, and his other adventures, but this was the first time that I’d seen him in action. Dave lives and breathes falconry, and he puts an incredible amount of time and effort, and loot, into it. What you won’t realise about him is that he is extremely fit and strong. He turned 70 last year but he left me floundering in his wake. I spent six days just trying to keep up and not embarrass myself. My image of a grouse moor was of gently rolling hills covered with short grasses and delicate little pink flowers. Wrong. It’s a bog. It feels like you’re walking on a waterlogged sponge covered with knee high grass and sphagnum moss, and with every step water squelches out and of it and rises up over your ankles. Even right at the top of the mountain its sodden wet. In fact, I’m convinced that the rules of physics don’t apply on a grouse moor, because water runs uphill there.

What is also not immediately obvious is that because of the prevailing winds most of the moor is unflyable. And you can’t fly the same areas every day for six weeks, so you’ve got to walk to get onto new slopes. Down one side of the valley and up to the top of the other, carrying that 1,2kg gyr falcon that you admired, and lusted after, so much when she was quietly sitting on her block. But, as is usually the case in any kind of gamebird falconry, the dogs were the stars of the show. The conditions are tough for falconers and falcons so you absolutely have to have good reliable dogs, and even with the perfect setup the grouse has a pretty good chance of escape. They often crash back into the heather just after the flush, scramble out of the way and then take off again when the hawk has lost the advantage. One flight that sticks in my memory is one where the grouse got up and made off straight downhill towards the bottom of the valley, where I expected it to turn right and follow the course of the stream it instead turned left into the wind and uphill. With a fit and powerful falcon on its tail I thought immediately that it was game over, but at the limits of my sight the gap slowly lengthened until the hunter gave up knowing it was beaten. I can’t remember if it was the hybrid or the gyrkin that day but they are both fit and powerful birds that killed every day that I was there except for one, and would return to the lure from great distances away. It was an astounding display from the grouse. It knew it was strong enough and fast enough into the wind to escape and that’s exactly what it did. I now know what the fuss is all about. The red grouse is a product of its environment, and the environment is tough.

The trip was a revelation. It has opened my eyes to the possibilities. It reminds me of my first SAFA meet all those years ago where I witnessed gamebird hawking with pointers in the vast grasslands of the Free State. Nothing else has caught my attention quite like that since, but it has always felt like an unlikely dream. I’ve struggled for years to fly a bird with the limited time available, mainly due to work commitments and now family commitments too, and even just flying the drone close to home has become problematic as each little pocket of open land is closed off to us. I’ve been forced to decide that I won’t be flying a raptor for the foreseeable future, but I aim to keep fit enough so that when my circumstances change I’ll still be able to walk the mountains. And then maybe I’ll recreate my own grouse moor, and stone cottage, somewhere in the Free State or the Eastern Cape.

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